NathanATX
06-29-2006, 10:57 AM
The following is an excerpt from this week's email to FUEL, the young adult ministry of MCC Austin. I hope these words encourage you. If you're near Austin, TX and you'd like more info on FUEL--an awesome group of lesbian/gay/straight/bi/trans young people who are "making friends, growing spiritually, & loving their lives" visit www.fuelmccaustin.com. If you want info on our church, visit www.mccaustin.com.
Peace,
Nate
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Prayer Needs
There seems to be a lot of stuff going on in people's lives and I want all of you to know that you are being remembered in prayer. Please remember to keep everyone in prayer, our church, our leadership, our friends & family members. Know you are loved. Know that God is present and working in your life.
RENEW Your Mind
If you're like me, I'm sure you've sometimes had a nagging little voice in your head tell you that something you said or did wasn't loving or kind. 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is a beautiful explanation of what it means to have love and to be loving. Remember, that love is our highest calling: To love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Here's the scripture reading:
1 Cor. 13 (The Message)
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."
Peace,
Nate
*****************************************
Prayer Needs
There seems to be a lot of stuff going on in people's lives and I want all of you to know that you are being remembered in prayer. Please remember to keep everyone in prayer, our church, our leadership, our friends & family members. Know you are loved. Know that God is present and working in your life.
RENEW Your Mind
If you're like me, I'm sure you've sometimes had a nagging little voice in your head tell you that something you said or did wasn't loving or kind. 1st Corinthians chapter 13 is a beautiful explanation of what it means to have love and to be loving. Remember, that love is our highest calling: To love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Here's the scripture reading:
1 Cor. 13 (The Message)
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."